Students identified as gifted and talented are provided with differentiated learning opportunities commensurate with their abilities and talents during their third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade years.

In California, each school district has the responsibility of developing a method for identifying students as gifted and talented. Cypress School District annually screens all third grade students as part of its GATE identification process. Students in grades four, five, and six may be included in the annual screening by parent request or teacher recommendation. Students are administered a test designed to measure their academic potential by assessing the cognitive skills related to the learning process. English learners are assessed for GATE using a nonlinguistic assessment.